An office worker pocketed more than £20,000 in sick pay after falsely claiming she had HIV and cancer.
Emma Rorison feigned sick notes using real doctors’ names to claim she was receiving radiotherapy and that she had contracted HIV after being raped, collecting thousands in sick pay from her employers, insurance provider Domestic and General. But when the firm requested access to her medical records to check the claims, she refused.
Rorison, 50, who had been a customer relations advisor at the firm, also lied about being the victim of medical negligence and claimed she had liver and kidney tumours. The 50-year-old from Beeston, Nottingham, however was spared jail on Wednesday after pleading guilty to fraud, NottinghamshireLive reports.
Nottingham crown court heard Rorison claimed a total of £22,102.92 from the company, who dismissed her after learning of the fraud. Laura Hocknell, prosecuting, said Rorison had been working for the company since 2017, and first asked to begin flexible working 11 months later in October 2018 with claims she was undergoing treatment for a brain tumour.
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“On May 14, 2019, occupational health reported she was having ongoing cancer treatment including chemotherapy and radiotherapy,” said Ms Hocknell. “In December 2020, she told them she’d had an operation to have lymph nodes removed but they had grown back.
“In 2021, she said she was undergoing dialysis for a kidney tumour and also had a liver tumour. She said she had been the victim of medical negligence.
“In September 2021, she said she was suffering from anxiety due to the radiotherapy and in 2022 said she had been raped and had contracted HIV. Her employer asked for consent to see her medical records but she refused.
“She then sent letters to her employer claiming to be from doctors at Woodthorpe Hospital which supposedly confirmed her HIV. An employee at Woodthorpe hospital then confirmed these were not genuine letters. She was called into Domestic and General and dismissed.”
The court heard the company subsequently reported the matter to police to whom she later admitted falsifying the doctors’ letters. Handing her a 20-month jail term, suspended for two years, Recorder Adrian Jack said: “Over an extended period of time you pursued your employer to grant you more than £22,000 in sick pay you were not entitled to. You carried out an extensive case of fraud and created fictitious letters from the hospital which resulted in you receiving substantial sums of money you were not entitled to.”
Rorison, of Rose Grove, pleaded guilty to fraud and has no previous convictions. Sian Barber, mitigating, said her client “did have genuine health concerns” but admits that “matters spiralled completely out of control”, leading to the offending. She said: “I accept on her behalf this was committed over a sustained period of time but it was not motivated by financial advantage.”
“She is assessed as a low risk of re-offending, has an elderly father who she cares for and is considering moving to Manchester, where she’s from, to care for him full-time.”
As part of the suspended sentence order, the judge ordered the defendant to attend 20 rehabilitation sessions and to have a 12-month mental health treatment requirement. He also ordered her to pay back the full £22,102.92 to Domestic and General as compensation within the next 12 months or risk being sent to prison for up to 18 months.